futurethink

Three dimensional printers are moving from the lab to the marketplace using technology that could redefine the very concepts of craftsmanship, engineering, and accessibility. As with any emerging technology, 3D printing comes with its share of controversy: the potential to infringe on patented designs or “print” weapon components has raised serious legal and ethical questions. Should certain applications of 3D printing be restricted?

Here are a few ways that companies have “pushed the envelope” on 3D printing capabilities: 

3D Gets Medical
An early-stage experiment at the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine is addressing the shortage of organ donors with a 3D printer that uses living cells to output a transplantable kidney. Using scanners and a small tissue sample, a 3D image of a patient’s kidney is created and a computerized process “prints” layers of living tissue that can be fused together. While patients will benefit from more immediate access, how will doctors and insurance companies accommodate this new realm of medicine?

3D Gets Edible
The French Culinary Institute and Cornell University are experimenting with a 3D food printer that brings an unparalleled level of precision into the kitchen. Upload a blueprint for a cake design, fill the cartridges with icing, and hit print. The result is an intricate and delicious piece of technology that could be available to consumers in the near future. Will self-printed cakes become the fad, making pastry chefs a thing of the past?

3D Gets Mass-Market

Is your organization leveraging forward-looking economic trends? Services now account for 80% of the U.S. GDP, with other developed nations showing similarly high percentages.

Product-dominant companies are adding service to their offerings because it is relatively inexpensive to implement, provides recurring revenue, and creates an effective differentiator in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

Consider how these companies successfully profited from this trend:

 1.     Capitalize on Services as Recurring Revenue Streams:

When Jack Welch took over at GE in the early ‘80s, he realized that relying solely on product sales was a short-sighted approach. He shifted the mindset of the company from a one-and-done sales strategy toward creating ongoing revenue streams with clients. GE now sells airplane engines nearly at cost but bundles them with highly profitable, multi-year service contracts. Can your bottom line benefit from service-and-product bundling?

Love it or hate it, the recent resurgence of 3D movies has been enthusiastically welcomed by technology manufacturers, providing them with the latest way to get the public to upgrade their TV’s, smartphones, and portable gaming consoles.

While 3D TV sales have suffered from a rocky start due to limited content options and the often mocked glasses, analysts are projecting much higher growth in the coming year due to lower retail prices and stepped up marketing efforts. While the transition to high definition technologies felt natural to manufacturers and consumers alike, 3D has yet to prove its worth. Whether it’s peoples’ inability to actually perceive 3D content, or issues related to cinematography and content, 3D has been a divisive issue when it comes to the movie going experience.

Personally, I have quite enjoyed the movies that lend themselves naturally to being filmed by 3D cameras (primarily action and animated movies), but upon trying out a Samsung TV set at the Samsung Experience Store I swore off the technology because of the immediate eye strain I experienced. At this point, the only 3D content I can imagine myself getting excited over are video games.  This is where Nintendo’s new portable gaming console comes into play. The recently unveiled 3DS is the 3D successor to Nintendo’s lucrative DS portable gaming system. The 3DS promises a 3D gaming experience without the need for glasses. But in the face of all the criticism 3D is facing, how does a company like Nintendo convince the consumer that its new 3D system isn’t just a gimmick? Good old hands-on demonstrations of course. Besides demos at over 40 retail locations nationwide, Nintendo has opted to extend the experience in four major cities with the use of “Demo Pods”.